Nanoelectronics is a developing field in which circuitry is composed of nanometer-sized electronic components. Researchers are compelled to explore the field because further miniaturization of small electronic circuits should result in the development of faster, more sophisticated, and more portable electronic devices.
Nanoscale electronics promises a new class of devices which can provide advantages in the form of high chip densities, three-dimensional architecture, and high-speed operation. The use of electrodeposited nanoscale electrodes as either quantum point contacts or metallic leads for a molecular junction may have potential applications in logic devices, both classical and quantum.
Essential to the realization of improved nanoscale based electronics is the fabrication of metallic electrodes separated by nanogaps. Electrodes with a separation of few nanometers also provide an effective, yet expensive, tool for studying electrical properties of single and multiple atoms. It has been reported that electroless or autocatalytic nickel plating is a useful technique to make such electrodes through metal deposition on substrate without an external source. One reported method provided two electrodes with a gap of 1-2 microns which were patterned using conventional lithography, immersed in an electroless nickel plating bath, then plated with nickel to narrow the gap. The drawbacks of this method include low yield and a low level of precision.
A primary goal of the field of molecular electronics is the realization of electronic switches comprising individual molecules as the key functional unit. These devices represent the ultimate limits of field-effect transistors scaling. The study of their electronic transport properties can provide a detailed understanding of electron dynamics at the nanoscale and will determine whether or not such devices are technologically feasible. Highly conjugated organic molecules synthesized for such studies are typically no more than a few nanometers in length, and the reliable fabrication of electrodes that can be bridged by a single molecule remains a significant challenge.
Thus, there still exists a need in the art for methods of making nanoscale electrodes having nanogap spacing with increased yields and precision. This invention addresses that need.